Boston (May
8, 2014) – The
state’s congressional delegation should insist that the federal government find
a way to pay the entire cost of rebuilding the failed health care website,
which replaced a functional program until Obamacare came along, said the National Federation of Independent Business
(NFIB).

“The federal
government created this disaster and they should clean it up,” said NFIB State Director Bill Vernon.

Vernon
reacted to a decision today by a state Board to authorize $121 million to
replace the state’s health care website that blew up on takeoff and hasn’t
worked since. State officials are hoping
that the federal government will front all of the money but at least one board
member worried that there’s no guarantee.

“We paid more
than a hundred million dollars to build a website that doesn’t work and now we
have to spend at least another $121 million to replace it,” said Vernon. “Our health insurance system, though not
perfect, was working fine until most of our congressional delegation voted with
a bare majority to impose this new system on Massachusetts.

“There’s no
good reason for Massachusetts small businesses, as taxpayers or as health
insurance premium-payers, to subsidize any portion of the cost of cleaning up
this mess.”